Jacques Genin Caramels

[gap]

Is it just me that is confused here? I understood that the famous Genin caramels we tried to reverse engineer were with Passion fruit and mango...or did this flavor become secondary to the original fantastic basic caramel recipe?

Anyhow, I have powdered sorbitol. I wonder if in other recipes that call for liquid sorbitol can be replaced with powdered -in half the weight of the liquid one. All these ingredients are incredibly hard to get here even in health food stores and there is no speciality store for diabetics!

Perhaps a list of replacements would be good. Sorbitol can be replaced with? Powdered vs. liquid? Glucose, corn syrup, inverted etc!!! I know (I hope!) that glucose and corn are interchangeable. Or should we just have all the possibilites available? Just some thoughts as these questions seem to pop up every now and then!

Hi Lior - Genin has quite a few caramel flavours. I think the aim was to get the original because then you can adapt that as you want.

I have always been told that you can substitute liquid and powdered sorbitol in recipes.

Use twice as much liquid sorbitol as powdered sorbitol (by weight)

Cheers

Edited November 24, 2009 by gap (log)

[Lior]

thank you!Thank you!

[schneich]

just wanted to give you guys an update from the caramel front.

i finetuned my recipe cause i had still issues with fat oozing. after some very

unsuccessful trials with sucrose ester (sucro, sole graells & sucrosilk) instead

of lecithin i wen back to the original recipe changing the bicarbonate, the butter

and the lecithin weights.

1000 Sugar

150 Glucose

140 Liquid Sorbitol

600 Beurre demi sel

60 Lecithin

1000 Cream 35%

8 Bicarbonate

30 vanilla extract

this baby is very stable shows virtually no signs of fat oozing and what seems really weird

it tastes a lot creamier :-/

i also tried a genin type mango/passion recipe, but it was lightyears away from the real thing..

gotta put some effort in this i guess...

i also find that cooking the caramels slower over a long period of time intensifies the caramel flavours..

anyway, these are my results so far, they sell very well :-)

Edited November 29, 2009 by schneich (log)

[Lior]

very fun to watch. "The Reversed Engineered Caramel" by Confiseur Schneich! Focused on excellence!! Ta-dum!!

Epitomizes the effort put into making one delicious product!!!

[ElsieD]

I have a couple of dumb questions. Can I make this at home? Can I scale down the recipe, by say, a quarter? I assume the quantities given are for grams?

Thanks

[cmflick]

I made it at home, scaled down to about 700 grams using schneich's first recipe. . The caramels came out really well and there were no problems at all.

[ElsieD]

I made it at home, scaled down to about 700 grams using schneich's first recipe. . The caramels came out really well and there were no problems at all.

Thanks for responding, but you didn't really answer my questions. You produced 700 gms? Or did you start with 700 gms of the first ingredient on what I assume is the Oct. 19th posted recipe? Or am I not reading something right? Any chance you can tell me how many caramels you had when you cut them up? I'd like to try this for Christmas gifts. Thanks!

[zoe b]

I think he meant scaled down to 700 grams total weight

[Kerry Beal]

I scaled by half, so started with 500 grams of sugar.

[cmflick]

I made it at home, scaled down to about 700 grams using schneich's first recipe. . The caramels came out really well and there were no problems at all.

Thanks for responding, but you didn't really answer my questions. You produced 700 gms? Or did you start with 700 gms of the first ingredient on what I assume is the Oct. 19th posted recipe? Or am I not reading something right? Any chance you can tell me how many caramels you had when you cut them up? I'd like to try this for Christmas gifts. Thanks!

I produced 700 grams total of caramel. That made a slab about 8 x 8 x 1/2 inch. I cut that up into about 1 inch squares, but it was all done by eye using a pizza wheel cutter, so I'm not sure how many caramels I ended up with in the end. Sorry if my previous answer was confusing.

I used schneich's Nov. 10 recipe.

Edited December 1, 2009 by cmflick (log)

[lapin d'or]

Can I add a big thank you to Schneich for giving us his caramel recipe which was the star of the chocolates I made for friends and family this Christmas.

I dipped it in both plain and milk chocolate but prefer the milk version. This is the only caramel recipe that has worked for me. Easy to cut, easy to eat and no nasty sugar crystals formed while it was stored.

Next year I think I am just going to do a range of caramels!

Many thanks

Lapin

[prairiegirl]

I think I will try these tomorrow. Cooking them that is!

Edited January 2, 2010 by prairiegirl (log)

[ncorrigbl]

Must try this recipe!!!

Hitting up the health food store tomorrow!

Edited January 8, 2010 by ncorrigbl (log)

[Lior]

This is not a Genin caramel but I would love those of you who have tasted his caramels tell me how this compares: Now it may be way down in comparison-how would I know?? I made a strawberry caramel and I like it- who wants to play? Make it and tell me how it compares? LEt me know!

Edited January 10, 2010 by Lior (log)

[ncorrigbl]

Was the lecithin liquid or granules? I found both at the local health food store. Still looking ofr Sorbitol, though!

Thanks

HEather

[ncorrigbl]

A quick Amazon search showed either 70% sorbitol solution or sorbitol syrup. Any suggestions will be appreciated!

Thanks again

Heather

[lapin d'or]

A quick Amazon search showed either 70% sorbitol solution or sorbitol syrup. Any suggestions will be appreciated!

Thanks again

Heather

When I made the caramels I used liquid lecithin, not granules though it is a very viscous liquid. The sorbitol I used was from the SOSA brand and it is a liquid but the label just gives sorbitol as the ingredient, no % and no mention of added water.

Hope that helps a little.

Lapin

[schneich]

the added water conten doesnt matter, because you boil it out anyway, but you should replace the "lost" lecithin.

i also use liquid sorbitol.

next week iam going to do a foie gras caramel, a 750g lobe of finest foi gras is waiting in the fridge to be melted. the foie fat will then be used instead of the butter :-)

cheers

t.

[Kerry Beal]

next week iam going to do a foie gras caramel, a 750g lobe of finest foi gras is waiting in the fridge to be melted. the foie fat will then be used instead of the butter :-)

cheers

t.

Can't wait to hear how that turns out.

[Chocolot]

Very interesting recipe. I cooked to 121C. (actually 242F for my altitude) They are perfect texture. I think I got the caramel too dark before adding butter and cream. The texture is very smooth and tender. It all but dissolves in your mouth, leaving a very clean feel. There is a slight bit of flow, but not much at all. I would like more of a dairy taste as these are mostly a burnt sugar taste, probably because I over did it. I also think I can taste the lecithin. What would happen with less?

[cmflick]

Did you use Schneich's first (10 Nov) or second (29 Nov) recipe? The second recipe has 5 times more lecithin in it and less butter. I really prefer the taste of the first recipe. I have been cooking to 252 at sea level and the consistency is excellent. I made a lot of caramels with the 10 Nov recipe for Xmas and it was very popular.

[Chocolot]

I used the Nov 29 recipe. I think I will try the Nov 10 recipe next time.

[prairiegirl]

Ruth, my batch sounds exactly like your batch. I felt I carmelized the sugar a little too long. A burnt caramel taste! Everyone really likes it though!

[Kerry Beal]

the added water conten doesnt matter, because you boil it out anyway, but you should replace the "lost" lecithin.

i also use liquid sorbitol.

next week iam going to do a foie gras caramel, a 750g lobe of finest foi gras is waiting in the fridge to be melted. the foie fat will then be used instead of the butter :-)

cheers

t.

I decided to try foie caramels myself because I'm attending an all foie cooking class at The Good Earth cooking school at Niagara on the Lake on Sunday.

The first batch I made I took the sugars too dark - and while they were good, they were a bit too bitter. The second batch was perfect - in spite of making them over at the friends house who I will be attending the class with - and she doesn't own a reliable thermometer. I tested them in water when the thermometer wouldn't go above 114C.

So this am I set out to make the batch for the class - decided that the microwave would be an efficient way to melt the foie. Perhaps not... I'm searching in the cupboard for the glucose - when 'BANG' - goes the contents of the microwave. About $20 worth of foie to be wiped off the inside of the nuke.

I'll be making an emergency stop at the friends freezer on the way to work tonight to grab the remaining frozen foie to finish the caramels tomorrow.

But they are truly yummy - just that perfect little hit of umami - no one can identify it - but they know they like it.

[schneich]

if you have a superbag i will make it easier to separate the foie fat...